Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Today was the last day of the semester. We started the period by going over a couple of questions that much of the class struggled with then they were able to work independently or in small groups to go over what they thought they should study.

A number of students had clearly used the last couple of days off effectively and had some very specific questions to ask. A number of students had a hard time focusing and didn't use the period effectively. I think coming back after an unexpected two day holiday was part of the problem, but perhaps I need think about making some of the review time more structured.

I gave students their marks going into the exam and they had lots of questions about the logistics of the next week or so, this being their first time through the exam process.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

The buses were cancelled so I sent out an email reminding students that they should be studying for their exams and that they could email me if they had any questions.

I did have one student show up for class (a different students from yesterday). He worked away on some review and asked some questions when he was stuck. It was really easy to help him since he chose to work at the whiteboard. It made it easy for me to keep track of where he was as he went along.

Monday, January 22, 2018

The buses were cancelled today due to the potential of freezing rain. I emailed students in the class to let them know that they should use their time wisely today and that they should be studying for their exams. I let them know that they should email me if they had any questions.

I did have a couple of students stop in for some extra help. It was great to be able to work one on one with these students. I didn't hear from anyone over email. Although I hope it's because they all know exactly what's going on, I'm very aware that many of them likely didn't check their email.

Friday, January 19, 2018

The first thing students wanted to do today was to discuss some of the problems that they saw on the EQAO test yesterday and the day before. We walked through a couple of the questions that they struggled with. Then they had a bunch of questions about the exam: what it would look like, how it would be different from the test they had just written, how long would it be, etc.

I had shared a list of topics we've covered this semester and reminded them to use if they needed help figuring out what to study. I let them choose whether to work independently or within a small group. Most choose to work with a partner. Some worked on reviewing old tests, others discussed questions from the EQAO test and still others worked on practice exams found online (most settled on this one).

With about 20 minutes to go our peer tutor took over and had students reviewing some terminology. She created a crossword puzzle for them with a ton of terms. She did a great job. It was a good way for them to be reminded about some of the terms they may have forgotten about.

I reminded students that they should be spending some time studying over the weekend. It's hard to believe that the semester is just about over.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Students wrote their standardized test today and will do the second part tomorrow. Some were nervous about writing. I told them not to be nervous and to just do their best (I know this is easier said than done). I'm very excited that they get the chance to show me what they've learned over the semester.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

We started with this warm-up at the boards in groups since a number of students said they were having a tough time with geometry.

There was some discussion about what the sum of the interior angles of different figures should add to. Once that was sorted out most groups proceeded fairly quickly.

After the warm-up was done students could work on what they thought they needed to work on. Some worked in pairs, others put their headphones on and worked individually. There was a huge variety in the work that was happening. The vast majority of the class was really productive. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do tomorrow and Thursday.

Monday, January 15, 2018

I was pleasantly surprised today to see that a number of students had attempted some of the practice multiple choice question that I had sent to them on Friday.

I had them start in groups working at the board on a few multi-step multiple choice questions. Here they are:

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The reason for starting with these questions was to get students to realize that just because it's a multiple choice question doesn't mean that it's easy. I wanted them to see that there could still be multiple steps involved.

Once they were finished the warm-up questions they could choose to work on the Opens Response questions from the other day or to practice the multiple choice quizzes in D2L. Most students chose to complete the online quizzes but a few worked on the open response questions. I think my favourite part about this time of year is watching students help each gain a better understanding of the content. There seems to be so much transferring of knowledge. It's exciting to watch.